I think you got excellent advice from the folks who suggested you write directly to the instructor. I would also recommend that you go to her course description page and scroll to the bottom. The link at the bottom will take you directly to student reviews— I just looked at them, and in many of them, students mention how much time they spent per day or per week on the course, which you may find helpful. The time required will definitely vary depending on your teen’s writing process! I had one kid who took AP English at PAHS, and one who elected not to (He instead did one year of newspaper writing and editing (Byline) and three years of the rhetoric series from TWTMA, plus an elective we created just for him called The Anatomy of Story. The kid who took the AP English class thought it was very worthwhile, even with his other classes and commitments, and felt it set him up very well for college writing. The one who did not take it is still in college, but has also felt he was very well-prepared (this one’s actually majoring in English). I will say that I have heard nothing but good comments about Maya Inspektor. Jen AP Statistics/PA Homeschoolers

This may depend on the field, but in general, a terminal masters just means that’s as far as you can go in terms of earning degrees in that specific field— in your son’s case, specifically screenwriting. It does not in any way preclude going on for a PhD in another field (such as film studies). As someone else has already mentioned, in many fields you don’t even need a master’s at all in order to enter a PhD program (some PhD programs may award a master’s partway through he program, but I don’t know that that is universal. It might happen, for example, if the PhD program consists of 3 years of classroom work followed by 2+ years of thesis research and writing, and the master’s degree is granted after an oral exam at the end of the 3 years classroom work== just one of many ways a program can be run). Your son should go to the website for the program he wishes to enter and see what they require— they often make the entrance criteria pretty clear.

I'm so sorry you had a bad experience, and I believe you. But please do note that all of the instructors at PAHS are different from one another, and what is true of one course is not necessarily true of the others. I don't personally know the course or instructor you used, but I know several of the instructors, and my kids took classes at PAHS as well as other providers, and detailed feedback is rather the norm, because we care about what we do (in my opinion; I don't speak "for" PAHS). Jen Driscoll AP Statistics/PA Homeschoolers

Rebekah Lang at PA Homeschoolers has an excellent reputation in teaching the AP Comp Sci courses, including Principles. Her students not only do very well on the AP exam, but seem to thoroughly enjoy the class. Jen AP Statistics/PA Homeschoolers

I don’t know of any off the top of my head. I do offer an asynchronous option to my own class, but it isn’t for everyone— students miss out on the reinforcement and discussion with the other students, help from the TA’s, and I do take the summer off, so it starts in late August.

Yes, they should have t, z, and chi-square functions, invt and invNorm, log and ln, and confidence intervals, as well as linear regression. Graphing is nice to have and occasionally helpful, but not a dealbreaker. If they are going to take AP Calc later, picking one from the list that has an asterisk by it will ensure it is useable in AP Calc as well. Colleges will vary on calculator use and policy, so there is no one “correct” answer for whether it’s useful in college. My younger son was in a math course where he was told he had to get a TI-84, but before heading off to spend yet another $100, he went to the professor to ask for an explanation, and it turned out his Casio was perfectly acceptable, so he saved a pile of money there! As noted in my other response, my favorite is becoming the NumWorks calculator, but for the most part, as long as it meets requirements, the calculator a student already owns is probably the best one. It’s nice to have one that is familiar so “learning calculator” doesn’t take up time instead of learning the material. Jen Driscoll AP Statistics/PA Homeschoolers

Several people have posted the link to the list of acceptable calculators. Here is my summary of calculators: TI-84 is not the only game in town for AP Stats (and other AP’s). It is popular because they make deals with publishers to put the directions for using their calculators in the textbooks. They use a rechargeable battery that charges via USB cable plugged into your computer. A Casio graphing calculator is perfectly fine for AP Stats, and is often cheaper. They are also faster, computationally, and for graphing in particular. Most models use regular replaceable batteries (AAA or AA depending on the model). My favorite calculator for AP Stats (and it is also allowed for AP Calc) is NumWorks. It has the smallest learning curve of all of them— most students need almost no instruction on how to use it once they get the basic idea of how it is set up (it essentially has apps, just like a smart phone). What I like as an instructor is that the calculator gets out of the way and becomes a nice learning tool for the material, because of the way it’s been thoughtfully designed— in many cases by people who have taken the courses. It organizes and displays information thoughtfully and usefully. The battery system is a rechargeable with a USB cord. It also has a free online emulator that will work on computer, tablet, or smart phone— while these are not allowed on the AP exam itself, it comes in handy if you need to do something and find you left the calculator somewhere else. For many students, the best calculator for AP stats is whatever calculator from the list that they already own! In my class, I welcome students to use what they like from the approved list; there is no need to drop yet another $100–$150 for a new calculator. Jen Driscoll AP Stats/PA Homeschoolers

Desmos is a whole huge thing. I will occasionally use a Desmos activity that some other amazing soul has programmed into it in my AP Stats class— the students can work through problems together, with everyone adding their results to a shared board, add comments, do matching activities, you name it. It’s a pretty neat ecosystem. Jen AP Statistics/PA Homeschoolers

The fifth edition is a fine book, and many schools are still using it. It is missing a couple of topics, and the last half of the course won’t match the order in which the practice exercises and videos are presented in the College Board site (this ordering was one of the things reworked the last time the CED — course and exam description— was updated). The publisher does have some pages to help show the missing material, and the missing material is not difficult (I believe mosaic plots were introduced after the 5th edition, but I’m working from memory here) but it will be a little more work for you to line everything up with the College Board materials. It’s very workable, though.

Yes, obtaining the TM won’t be completely necessary. As the course instructor, you will be able to set up assignment that will allow the student to see explanations and grading rubrics. The AP Stats videos on the College Board site have been redone over the past couple of years; they are much shorter and more focused now, so a student can actually take in a video or two at a sitting and absorb the information. The toughest thing for many parents will be helping the student to really pay attention to the details in the grading rubric. Many students see they got an appropriate numerical answer and ignore the rest— but AP Stats is very different from other math courses in that it’s the “all the rest,” ie understanding why things work and being able to interpret the results in context, that are really at the heart of the course. AP Stats is also really good at developing some lateral thinking; it is not uncommon to be asked a question in a form the student has never seen before, but can address, using related information they have learned. I tell my students, “Don’t count on just memorizing algorithms in this course. It won’t get you very far. You will need to make sure you are understanding why and how we assemble these bits of information, so you can figure out how to apply them in an entirely new context.”

There was a 6th edition released quickly when the standards were being changed, but a couple of changes made to the standards were more significant than anticipated, so the authors ended up issuing the 6th edition UPDATED to more fully align with the course and exam description (CED) issued by the College Board. There is a new edition coming out (supposedly in January 2024) with some more organizational changes, but the 6th edition Updated is just fine; the material covered and the order in which it is covered largely matches the current CED, and the rigor is an excellent match for the CED. The odd and even problems are a bit like matched pairs; so if you do problem 1, problem 2 is pretty equivalent. Problem 3 goes a bit farther and is matched by problem 4, and so on. So many teachers assign all the odd numbered problems. I more or less follow that, though if there are too many problems for an easier topic, I will winnow those down a bit, making sure to include most of the hardest problems in the topic, just to keep the homework load reasonable. And if I find something I don’t quite like in in a series of problems, I’ll just pick the evens for that set. The toughest thing for you as a home educator will be locating a reasonably priced TM. The TM is very well-done, with alternate examples and solutions that are far more complete in terms of meeting scoring expectations- the back of the text does have solutions, just not always fully worked out, and AP Stats is about 50% scored on clear communication- showing all work, labeling correctly, placing answers in context, providing correct justifications, etc. A good bit of that IS in the back-of-the-book solutions, but not always expanded quite enough. However, someone who is comfortable with stats can do just fine with the student text alone. Jen

AP Statistics teacher here (PA Homeschoolers). There are two really good stats books out there— The Practice of Statistics (any recent edition will do if the student is just studying stats and not taking the exam; you will want the 6th edition updated (black border around the usual flamingo pic) if taking the exam. You can find the older editions in print fairly inexpensively on Amazon; the most recent edition is going to run in the neighborhood of $100 (though that price may drop after January, when the 7th edition comes out). The other really good one is David Bock (et al)’s Stats in Our World. It also has several editions out which are all fine; the most recent is aligned with the current AP exam standards and pacing. If you are looking for good, but not necessarily AP level, Tabor and Franklin put out a text called Statistical Reasoning in Sports, which is great if you have a student who is interested in sports applications. The Practice of Statistics— I really like the problem sets in this book. They tend to be well-written, and they scaffold the learning well. The book itself is still very readable while being solid on the rigor. It contains excellent examples as well as activities you can do at home with playing cards, pennies, candy, and online simulators. This is the book I use in my class. Stats Modeling The World— this is also an excellent book, popular in part because it’s readability is much friendlier than most other stats texts. The material is broken into much smaller chunks at one time, with a higher chapter count than TPS. The book also has a higher page count than TPS, partly due to the writing style and partly due to ample white space throughout the book. Both of the above use a lot of real-world data and settings for their problems, and either would be a great choice.

I’m not sure how long ago this was, but there is an entirely new in-house classroom for PAHS, and many instructors opt for Canvas, augmented by live zoom sessions and Discord. The individual listings will detail what the class structure and environment is for the current upcoming course. Jen AP Statistics/PA Homeschoolers

Having read your follow up responses, I’d sit down with him and ask this: What is it that you want to do after graduation? Is this something you cannot do while finishing high school? After all, homeschooling is quite flexible in how students can use their time. There are so many creative ways to branch out right now, when you don’t have adult responsibilities sucking up your time! Does he have a fair amount of control over what he studies and how he goes about it? If he has enough credits to graduate, he could perhaps still stick around until graduation time, but take just 1-2 classes and spend the rest of the time on an internship or special project (be prepared to explain use of time to colleges, some of which can frown upon a slack looking senior year). My youngest had a largely self-designed senior year that he found both satisfying and a nice change of pace. Teens may underestimate how much time is taken up by the tasks of “life” after graduation— if school is old, then the novelty of earning enough to live on, paying bills, arranging doc appointments, dealing with housing issues that crop up whether you are renting or buying, financial planning, and so forth, wears thin quickly. I told my kids— don’t be in a rush to start adulting. You’ll have the next many decades to enjoy that part of life. Don’t waste the last years of being able to be a kid. Both of them have been very responsible young men to start with. On the con side of graduating early, I’d echo what many have already said. Being much younger than your classmates in college can be a real bummer. Dating, driving experience, drinking, social experience, and that last bit of growing up can really set you apart from your classmates and make fitting in very difficult. On the job, particularly if the student is under 18, there will be frustrating restrictions, and the same social issues with bonding with coworkers. It’s amazing how much they continue to grow up in those last couple of years of high school. That said, for a very small number of kids, it’s just the right thing to do to move on. But I’d start with understanding how he plans to use his time after graduation and whether it’s just some “early senioritis” that can be helped with a. Shake-up in how school is approached, or a rosy view of adulthood. Good luck! These darn kids didn’t come with instruction manuals…